Wednesday, April 25, 2012

Blogger Woes . . . Again

Last month and most of this month (until last Thursday) this is what appeared on my Blogger dashboard -- something that looked like a suggestion, or an option:"Blogger is getting a new look in April. Upgrade Now."

Until today, when this -- an ultimatum? -- appeared on my blogger dashboard:"The old Blogger interface will be removed in the coming month. Upgrade Now."

I guessed the Blogger I used on Friday was the new, (un)improved Blogger interface but I decided to see if I could find any more information about Blogger's upcoming changes on the internet. I found What's New with Blogger on the Google Blogspot blog. I scrolled down past the video at the top to the post. It shows images of old and new Blogger interfaces. I got to the new one and I thought, "Gee, that looks a lot like what I'm using now. Maybe it won't be so bad." I was fooling myself. On first view I missed the post's date: March 14, 2011. (Which tells you something about how often Blogger likes to make changes.)

If I were at least a little tech savvy I might not feel so disheartened. If I liked even one of the changes I saw on Blogger's new interface I might not feel so discouraged. It's like having your favorite anything you use on a near-daily basis that's still in good working order (car, couch, computer) ripped away and exchanged for a new, less comfortable version.

I knew old Blogger wouldn't be here forever but I hoped it wouldn't go away so soon. Even more I hoped it would be more similar to the Blogger I use now. And I especially hoped it would incorporated the best of old Blogger. I hope it's not so but my blogging days may be coming to an end..

It's hard to complain, because it is a free service. Not only that, but let's see...how do I reach customer service? It's just that we invest so much in it that we start to feel we are entitled to something that works well. It's also particularly frustrating when something seems to work well and then they change it so it doesn't work so well.

I know I'm late on this bandwagon, but I was recently forced into this new format. I tried to use it when it first came out, but had to switch back because it would not publish a new blog post I had in the draft queue, even though the little box was checked. Then when I was forced to change, a couple of other things were not working, so I switched from using it in IE to Firefox, which gave me a message saying they will no longer be supporting firefox and Blogger. Of course we are all thankful that this is free, but when they upgrade with multiple bugs that make our lives MUCH more difficult, it makes me want to shop for a paid blog service, despite all my hard work. Boo to Blogger - I'm calling this new change a FAIL!

Oh, Cheri, I didn't want to hear that I can't use Firefox for Blogger. Ugh! I haven't used new blogger enough to have the kinds of problems you've had but I'm not encouraged from the experiences I've already had with it. I wish there were some way to contact them.

About Me

Sometimes I want to jump back in time, into the lives of my ancestors. Not to stay, of course -- too many modern conveniences I'd rather not do without -- but to meet them and watch their interactions with each other. Since I can't do that, I spend time learning about them and the times in which they lived. I look forward to meeting them. I've been seriously searching for my ancestors for nearly 8 years. I plan to continue indefinitely.
If you think we might have ancestors in common or you'd like to contact me for any other reason, please email me at myancestorsandme @ gmail.com.